Freelance journalist Bjørn Benkow admits that he invented a series of interviews with top celebrities that he sold to Norwegian and international publications.

The Norwegian journalist was recently accused of making up interviews with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, television celebrity Oprah Winfrey and Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher. The fictional interview with Gates recent appeared in Norwegian men’s magazine Mann and Swedish daily Aftonbladet.

Benkow said in a press release that he had been driven to fake the interviews out of desperation, but insisted he had met and spoken with the subjects. “What has been done has been done out of desperation, to pay for rent, power and food and to survive. I have no excuses, just explanations,” Benkow said according to newspaper VG’s web site. “I have met and spoken with these world-famous celebrities. But the circumstances and time periods have not always been as written.”

Benkow has issued an abject apology to his colleagues, family and friends. “Forgive me, for I knew what I did,” he writes.